


Treehouse

by Tyrus_ralvez



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Bisexual Spencer Reid, Character Death, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Past Drug Addiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:54:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26923201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyrus_ralvez/pseuds/Tyrus_ralvez
Summary: Spencer Reid goes to an old treehouse after some devastating news is revealed to him.
Relationships: Luke Alvez/Spencer Reid
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	Treehouse

As soon as Spencer answered the phone, his day became one of the worst ones in his life.

"Isabella? Is everything all right?"

He could hear sobs throughout the phone call. "It's Luke. He's.....he's...."

"He's what?" Spencer's voice was calm but he could only assume the worst.

"He's what?" His voice grew impatient.

"He's dead." She whispered. "He's dead Spencer. While in the army...."

Reid hung up. He didn't want to hear what she was going to say next.

Morgan took notice of Reid's somber shift in mood "What is it?"

He didn't answer. He went to the bathroom.

"Reid?" Morgan called out.

"What's with him?" Prentiss asked.

"I don't know."

Morgan followed him and tried to open the bathroom door but Reid had locked himself in there. He heard him sobbing.

"Reid, what happened?"

No answer.

"Reid, I'm here. You can talk to me, you know that right?"

Still no answer.

"Alright, I'll let you have some space. Look man, I don't know what happened back there but we're here if you need us."

Some time after Morgan left, Hotch went and knocked on the bathroom door. "If you want to take some time off you're welcome to. I don't know what you're going through right now or what that phone call was about but what I do know is you're not well. Take all the time you need."

Hotch waited for a response but when he didn't give one, he said goodnight to him and left.

After a few minutes, Reid got put of the bathroom gathered all of his things and drove home.

The next day Reid showed up for work.

"Reid, what are you doing here? I told you to take all the time you need. You don't have to be here "

"I'm fine Hotch."

"You need some rest." Rossi Said, " You look like you haven't slept in years. "

"I'm fine, Rossi. I'm ok, really. I can do my job."

"Go home." Rossi said, "Take all the time you need. I know what it's like to lose a loved one."

"How did you know?" He interrupted.

"We're profilers, now go home Reid and don't come back until a month from now. Lord knows you deserve this. You've been through so much." 

"But-"

"We'll be fine, kid. Sure your genius brain gets us through a lot of our cases but we'll be fine."

Spencer gave up and went home to his apartment. Once he got there, he brought out his photo album. Some pictures were of him and Luke which he treasured dearly. He looked through them and found one from when they were kids. They were hugging for the camera. He turned the next page it was a picture of them with suits getting ready for Luke's prom. Since Reid was a few grades ahead of him at the time, he had to sneak in.

He remembered that day very clearly. Luke went to prom with a girl named Melissa Hartman and Spencer was the third wheel. Melissa ditched Luke after a while and went to hang out with her friends and when he was left standing there all alone, Reid went in and comforted him. At the end of the night, he held Luke's hand and kissed him. Luke ran away and for the next few weeks he avoided him until Spencer confronted him and told him it was a mistake and that he didn't know why he did that.

They went back to normal after that.

Spencer closed his photo album, hugged it, and laid down on his couch. The tears were too many to hold back. He soon fell asleep with tears streaming down and pouring on the couch.

The day after, he decided to go to the place they always went to since they were little kids.

He drove a few minutes and stopped in front of some woods. It was close to their former Middle School. He walked for a few minutes and climbed into the small treehouse which he and Luke had found one day while they were playing in the woods alone. They each had walkie talkies so if any of them wanted to talk or hang out, they could set up to meet at their spot.

He reached into his pocket and held up the bottle of dilaudid. He'd been sober for over ten years now. He wanted to give in so he'd forget about it all. He didn't want to feel like this anymore. He was tired of feeling like this even if it'd only been one day since his death.

He was about to open the bottle up when Morgan shouted, "Don't! You're going to throw away over ten years of recovery. Is that really what you want?

Reid looked up "What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?"

"I've been worried about you man." He sat down next to him and took the bottle and the syringe. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, ok? Leave me alone."

"You know I'm not doing that Spence. Why are you in a treehouse anyway? Secret hideout?"

"It's just a treehouse I found." 

Morgan looked at him unconvinced.

There was silence for a few moments and Reid finally talked, "This was our favorite place. Our little secret. We met in school while I was still taking normal classes. We were seven. After I started taking High School classes at 10 we saw each other every other school day but after that we saw each other less and less until we didn't even see each other at all after three years. We'd just send each other letters. It was our thing. That's actually the way we met. He folded a letter he wrote me into an paper airplane and threw it to me."

"What did it say?"

"'Dear Spencer, I think you're really smart, would you help me with homework? Luke Alvez'" He recited, smiling fondly at the memories.

"That's nice."

"Yeah," He sniffled and wiped some tears away, "I got a phone call from his mom yesterday. He was killed in battle. He joined the army when we were in our twenties. I didn't want him to go but he did. I always sent him letters telling him how my week had been and he'd respond. I saved every single one of them. He came here to see me three years ago and for that whole month, every chance we got, we came here to this secret place where nobody could bother us."

"I'm really sorry about your friend."

"He wasn't just my friend. Well he was but-" he hesitated, taking a deep breath and steadying his voice, "Luke was my first love but I never got to tell him that."

"Oh." He said, "I'm so sorry Spence."

"I'm sorry too that I didn't tell you sooner."

"Don't be. It's your choice who you tell and when." Morgan said.

"You know, I had a crush on Luke ever since I met him but I didn't know it was a crush until I was thirteen. He was talking about how he felt when he was around girls he liked and I realized that I'd felt the same way about him." He said, "First Maeve and now Luke. I loved them so much. I still do. But now they're gone. He's gone and I never got to tell him the truth."

"I know there is nothing I can say or do to make you feel better but I'm here for you. We're all here for you Spence. Always."

"Thank you. Can I be alone for a while?"

"Of course. Anything you need."

After Morgan walked out, Spencer laid down facing the ceiling and that's when he saw it. LA+SR carved on the ceiling of the treehouse. Spencer smiled and let the tears spill out from his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing this fic made me sad :( I wish they were canon.


End file.
